WO-A-98/00500 (Unilever) discloses detergent compositions wherein a Benefit Agent is delivered onto fabric by means of peptide or protein Deposition Aid having a high affinity for fabric. The Benefit Agent can be a fabric softening agent, a perfume, a polymeric lubricant, a photoprotective agent, a latex, a resin, a dye fixative agent, an encapsulated material, an antioxidant, an insecticide, a soil repelling agent or a soil release agent. The Benefit Agent is attached or adsorbed to a peptide or protein Deposition Aid having a high affinity for fabric. Preferably, the deposition aid is the cellulose binding domain of a cellulase enzyme. The compositions are said to effectively deposit the Benefit Agent onto the fabric during the wash cycle.
The detergent compositions disclosed in WO-A-98/00500 have a number of drawbacks. The Benefit Agent has to be attached/adsorbed to the Deposition Aid. If it is to be attached, it is preferably done by means of a linking agent. However, not all benefit agents can be derivatised. Furthermore, linking the Benefit Agent to the Deposition Aid may negatively affect the properties of the Benefit Agent. For example, perfumes cannot be covalently bound to larger molecules without negatively affecting their perfume properties.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an alternative or improved detergent composition which is capable of delivering a benefit agent to a fabric during a washing or rinsing process.
Surprisingly, we have now found that these and other objects of the invention may be achieved by the detergent compositions of the present invention, which are characterised in that they comprise a fusion protein comprising a cellulose binding domain and a domain having a high binding affinity for another ligand. This fusion molecule is bi-functional in its binding ability, whereby the cellulose binding domain region binds to cellulosic based materials and the second domain binds to another ligand.
According to DE-A-196 21 224 (Henkel), the transfer of textile dyes from one garment to another during a washing or rinsing process may be inhibited by adding antibodies against the textile dye to the wash or rinse liquid.
WO-A-98/07820 (P&G) discloses rinse treatment compositions containing antibodies directed at cellulase and standard softener actives (such as DEQA).